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Solution Manager What Is It and What Can It Do For Your Business From
Solution Manager What Is It and What Can It Do For Your Business From
A Solution Overview
written by Ken Asher,
Sr. SAP Architect
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1
1 SOLMAN Background
The SAP Solution Manager or SOLMAN is a type of application which:
Takes a consistent business-process and phase-oriented approach
Provides End-to-end functionality for application management and continuous
improvement
Provides full life-cycle support and collaboration with SAP
Contains best practices for implementation, operation and optimization of SAP solutions
Is delivered as part of the annual maintenance fee
SOLMAN Provides the necessary tools around the Implementation, Operational and Optimization
aspects of your SAP Application life cycle.
SOLMAN provides insights into all of the following shown in the picture below:
2 Pre-Requisites
2.1 System Landscape
The System Landscape (transaction SMSY) is the central point in Solution Manager to configure the
landscape (both SAP and non-SAP components) including detailed technical information about the
components and the connections between them.
Features:
Central configuration of satellite systems
Automatic collection of system information
Creation of (Trusted) RFC Connections and RFC Users
Creation of logical components
Logical components group all systems of a transport track. They can include virtual systems,
that work as placeholders for future systems that are not yet available, but transports can
already be sent there (transport buffer file exists).
The system information is used for system monitoring, ChaRM and to receive tailored updates
from SAP Support.
The correct setup of the system landscape is a prerequisite to nearly all other functionalities of
Solution Manager.
Document Repository
Edit Documents
Solution Manager and SAP KW Documents
Assign Authorizations for Documents
Status, Keywords and Documentation Types
General Documentation
Create Business Blueprint Document
Create Configuration Guide
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_smehp1/helpdata/en/b3/64c33af662c514e10000000a114084/frameset
.htm
Navigate to: SAP Solution Manager -> Implementing and Upgrading SAP Solutions -> Projects ->
Document Management
3 Implementation
3.1 Road Maps
Along with the business process and system documentation, SAP offers the Roadmap functionality to
track the progress of the project work. SAP delivers their best practise methods (ASAP) for a variety
of products with the Solution Manager. Roadmaps contain the following information (RMMAIN):
Phases of the project, e.g. Project Preparation, Business Blueprint, Realization, GoLive.
Work packages within the project phases (eg. Initial Project Planning, Project Procedures).
Document Templates (Accelerators) and description of activities to be carried out within the
work packages.
Milestones, which can be used for Quality Management processes (e.g. Quality Gates, QPI).
For each project a roadmap can be selected from a list of predefined SAP roadmaps (e.g. ASAP
Implementation, ASAP Global Template Rollout, etc). Changes to the central Roadmap are
immediately visible in all projects that use this Roadmap.
3.3 Configuration
The Functional teams can leverage the Configuration functionality offered by SOLMAN and centralize
all process changes and associated documentation via SAP SOLMAN.
The configuration functionality (transaction SOLAR02) offers the possibility to centralize processorientated system configuration and custom development to a single point of entry.
Functionality:
Prerequisites:
Creation of a Project
Setup of Business Blueprint structure
Setup of System Landscape and Logical Components
Creation of an IMG Project
Document and link customizing and custom development for all satellite systems via SolMan
Automated checks avoid typos or inconsistencies
Lock of transaction SPRO in satellite systems ensures that no undocumented customizing can
be performed
Assignment of IMG nodes, developments, RICEFW and Configuration Documentation to
processes or activities
Support of global roll-out with configuration templates
Easy implementation of pre-delivered configuration content
Features
In this project task, we can:
Assign/edit BC Sets
You can assign BC Sets to project steps, in the Configuration tab, view the contents of the
assigned BC Sets, and remove not-needed BC Sets from the project scope.
You can activate one BC Set or all BC Sets assigned to a process.
You can create new BC Sets in application systems, and assign them in the Solution Manager,
for project or company-specific settings which you want to use (e.g. in a global rollout or to
create your own solution).
You document the settings which are relevant to the configuration, along the project structure,
in the Project Documentation tab. For more information, see Processing Documents.
The functional teams can leverage the wealth of information on various Configuration options in
SOLMAN by referring to this SAP library web resource:
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_smehp1/helpdata/en/b3/64c33af662c514e10000000a114084/frameset.h
tm
Navigate to: SAP Solution Manager -> Implementing and Upgrading SAP Solutions -> Projects ->
Document Management
Use of Solution Manager combined with 3rd Party tools (esp. HP Quality Center for SAP)
Use of Solution Manager Test Workbench only. The Test Workbench provides a
comprehensive toolset supporting functional testing (manual as well as basic automated
testing).
Some customers leverage HP Quality Center which can be integrated into SAP Solution Manager. It
has a broad range of features beyond what is offered by the SOLMAN Test Workbench. However for
quick testing, the SOLMAN Test Workbench can still be leveraged.
Some of the features of the SOLMAN Test WorkBench for Basic Testing:
o Easily use test cases and recorded eCATT test scripts stored in the business process
structure
o Create test plans as a logical structure for test phases
o Divide test plans into test packages which are assigned to one or more testers
o Directly jump into test system and respective transaction
o Document test results within the Solution Manager
o Analyze all test results and test status within the Solution Manager
o Integrate the Test Workbench with the Service Desk using tickets to raise and manage
bugs discovered
4 Operation
The Solution Manager delivers integrated solutions and tools to efficiently monitor and operate your
SAP Landscape.
After the SAP Solution has been established, SOLUTION MANAGER supports the operations team
with the following functionalities:
It contains all systems used in the production processing in your system landscape (i.e. on
which one or more of your most important business processes run). You can proactively
monitor the business processes, business process steps, and interfaces of these systems (e.g.
all production systems).
It has a restricted view of the systems in your system landscape (e.g. for a business area).
The solution scope and settings can be specified in the Solution Directory.
Prerequisites:
Physical and technical connection to satellite systems
Assigned the Solution Monitoring role to the users
Defined systems and logical components in the System landscape maintenance (transaction
SMSY)
The correct setup of the solution landscape is prerequisite to almost all Solution Manager
operation functionalities like Monitoring, Service Desk, Change Request Management etc.
Prerequisites:
The Solution Manager Diagnostics is based on SAP Web AS 6.40.
SMD is required if you run at least one SAP Web Application Server JAVA Stack in your SAP
Solution
SAP PI (dual stack) and EP will sit on SAP Web Application Server JAVA Stack.
One-click support message creation from satellite systems and automatic Data Collection (e.g.
Time, System, Client, User, Transaction) from sending system
Various possibilities to customize the scenario (e.g. Support Desk Org., Status scheme,
Parties involved)
Basic Ticket Reporting (no built-in SLA-time reporting!)
Solution Database functionality to store problems, root-causes and re-usable solutions
In case of an existing Support Organization connection of 3rd Party Ticketing Tool possible
(WebService)
Service Desk is based on a reduced SAP CRM system already integrated in SAP Solution
Manager
Extension Service Desk XT (extra license costs!) enhances the Service Desk to support nonSAP components
Prerequisites:
Setup of system landscape and logical components
Configure RFC to Solution Manager in all satellite systems
SAP PI (dual stack) and EP will sit on SAP Web Application Server JAVA Stack
Benefits and Value for SAM:
Very comfortable ticket creation for SAP end/key users
Service Desk as SPOC of Support Services for all connected SAP (and optional: non-SAP)
Systems
Automatic support team assignment for SAP components
Seamless ticket escalation to SAP Global Support
Compliant to ITIL Service Support process model
Incident tickets highly integrated with other SolMan functionalities, e.g. creation from / assign.
to Roadmap, Blueprint, Configuration, Monitoring, Test, ChaRM
Process Message
Prerequisites:
Solution Manager Project set up (Template, Implementation or Maintenance)
Configured System Landscape (X01)
Configured Transport Routes in all satellite systems
Benefits and Value:
Complete integration with Service Desk to enable efficient and effective production support
No system changes can be transported to productive systems without appropriate approval
(recommended setup)
Complete history log available for all system adoptions
Import of changes via maintenance and project cycles
Controlled system change implementation, testing and transportation procedure supported
by an end-to-end change management workflow
To contact Mr. Asher or discuss how we can assist you with your upcoming projects, please call
Kim Snow, Vice President of Delivery at BayForce, at 813-908-8593 or send an email to
ksnow@bayforce.com.